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Inside the industry that made climate denial work

Zero: The Climate Race

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How Edward Bernays Changed the Culture of Men Wearing Wristwatches

Edward Bernays took over all of Ivy Lee's clients when she died. He did this thing that I think about all the time where he was contacted by a watchmaker who wanted to break the taboo against men wearing wristwatches. And so he goes to an expert and commissions a study on how many soldiers are getting killed when they light a match to look at their pocket watch. Now, the whether or not the data of this study was like at all credible is anyone's guess. But he took this study to the military and convinced them to make wristwatches standard issue for the army. Within like a year, this taboo against men wore wristwatches is gone.

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